The mood among the others was good, and Avan finally got to know the others better, even if he still didn't get any names mentioned, as a kind of comradeship had arisen through the common fight, and only Timo held back again and seemed to be in the same grumpy mood as before.

The others did not want to tell their names, because they did not think it was necessary, and the two dark-skinned were on the one hand not to understand with a foreign language, and on the other hand with the healers, because both were wounded after the fight.

So all together enjoyed the food and the first time something other than water, while even the bread was not hard and crusty, apparently as a thank you for the successful show they had delivered in the ring.

The yelling from outside had still not subsided, and if Avan understood correctly, the other slaves were now fighting in different groups and sizes against different monsters as well.

Judging by the groans and cheers of the spectators, the other fights were no less bloody.

The only disturbance the eight inmates had that day was a visit from Rielta and two guards, who told them they had the day off and that he was glad to have trained at least a few properly.

Tomorrow they would continue, and the fights would take place in smaller groups, now that the competent and cunning ones were left, while the weak ones were culled. They would also be given proper weapons tomorrow, depending on what the game leaders decided, and it could come down to single combatants or a maximum of up to three people.

With these words and the short praise, the taskmaster had turned around again and had gone back in company of the two guards.

"What do you think will happen tomorrow? Maybe a typical fight against an alpha dire wolf?" Lea asked the group as Nick and Avan sat on the floor with her, while Timo went to his corner and the other three board players went to theirs.

Nick scratched his beard and looked thoughtful while he visibly pondered with a stare. Lea, meanwhile, looked at Avan, who just smiled back. "Who knows?" If this is like the Roman games? Then unfair fights, bloody, as much action as possible, as much suspense as possible to keep the spectators happy... "But probably with restrictions? For example, two fighters, but there is only one net and one spear? Or three fighters, one net, one sword, and one neck fork? In any case, so that the spectators don't miss out. We are worth nothing, and this is all about entertainment..." Avan speculated, explaining his thoughts aloud to Lea, while briefly glancing at the thoughtful old man to his left. "And we should pray to all the gods, or whoever, that we don't attract the negative attention of anyone who has power here... Otherwise, a fight will quickly become a farce, so that we have almost no chance to survive..." He explained emotionlessly and quietly his second train of thought, as he thought again of the dark organization, which had brought him here, and of the torturer, who had also acted under their instructions.

When the quiet and always cheerful fighter heard his thoughts, she became a little pale in the face. "You mean, like your involuntary visit and the week with the healers?" She almost whispered back, this time seriously and with a worried look, while she thoughtfully puckered her mouth and frowned. "Whatever you've done, someone's already got it in for you, right?" The scales fell from Lea's eyes and she looked at Avan with wide eyes.

He just nodded slowly up and down as he looked down at his hands in his lap, sitting cross-legged.

"Yes, Lea... I guess you could say that, huh?"

Before emotions could spill out, he locked them behind a mental wall and mentally put them in one of the many drawers as well, a problem for another day and a future Avan. With a sigh, he looked up and said goodbye without further ado, while a now also thoughtful and pitying Lea looked after him as he made his way to his alcove.

With a relieved groan that came from Avan's closed lips, he plopped down on the stone and rubbed the stiff muscles of his neck and shoulder.

Don't I even care that others died today? Hm... No, I guess not, huh? On earth, I would have puked, or frozen. Is it the influence of the god of death? With his test. Or the... one night?

With both hands propped up on the stone behind him, Avan looked up at the ceiling and thought about himself and his time on Eos and Aorus so far.

How Dave is doing at the moment... And my parents? My sister and my nephews? Whether my company still exists with the worldwide pandemic that has just broken out?

Lost in thought, he continued to stare at the ceiling, while he circulated his mana again with a short thought in between and condensed the celestial part around him.

A sound of some footsteps on the cold stone woke him from his thoughts, and he looked down. Nick was slurping his way over to him at a slow pace.

Avan sat up straight and raised his right palm in a simple greeting, which earned him a slight smile from his counterpart.

"May I join you?" Came the question as the older man stood in front of him and smiled mildly at Avan with a slightly tilted questioning head.

"Sure." Avan slid to the side and made enough room to his left for another person to sit comfortably in the two-meter-long alkove.

Avan turned his head to the left and looked questioningly at Nick, who sat down next to him with a relieved sigh, but first leaned back slightly against the cold damp wall and looked up while folding his hands in his lap.

After a minute, during which Avan first looked confused, but then also leaned against the wall and looked at the ceiling, continuing his thoughts, Nick finally looked over to his right.

"You reacted well today, Avan. And at least made the only correct assumption, which turned out to be the most efficient. Thank you... I think if we had just hit it too, some of us would be dead now too." The older man spoke with a sad smile and looked at Avan grandfatherly, when he turned his head to him.

"And I think you're doing well with whatever it is you've been doing alone here all this time. I felt a draft, and even though I'm not sure, I advise you to keep doing whatever it is you're doing in your meditation. It seems to help you survive... And that's the most important thing..." And with these words he grabbed Avan's shoulder and squeezed lightly. "No matter what. Live. Don't throw your life away. No matter what happens to the rest of us. I know you seem to have a good heart. That's why I'm warning you especially, just as I warned Lea before you. Help others only if it does not put your own life in danger as well. This is a fight for life and death, Avan. Naivety and good faith will get you killed here faster than you can say A..."

Avan stared at him speechlessly, totally taken off guard by this sudden involvement. With a nod, he showed that he understood, and Nick continued.

"You know... I had a grandson your age, Avan. The emphasis is on had..." The old man whispered tiredly and sadly, while his gaze slid forward into space and stared into nothing. "He was naive and gullible too. Too kind, too friendly, and always wanted the best for his family... My daughter had lost her husband at an early age, when he was forcibly recruited into one of the many senseless wars and skirmishes, and had to take care of her son and daughter alone. They moved away from one of the larger settlements because she could no longer feed her family alone, and came to live with me in the country. I had a small farm where I had lived since the death of my wife. A stone wall almost two meters high all around, my own small beds and gardens, a cozy home... I had offered them to move to my place in the country. I could take care of them, and had never had any problems with bandits or other fellows, probably because I had never been worth it, and from my own time as a soldier I could make more trouble than it would have brought them anything..." Told Nick with his stare straight ahead, while he kneaded his hands in his lap.

"And so my little Elli, along with my two grandchildren, came to live with me in the country... And the kids grew up until Tom was ten, and his sister Ella was nine. We had lived unmolested for almost three years, tended the gardens, I had provided meat with my traps in the surrounding countryside, and we were doing well. Until... I returned one day, and two bandits thought it worth their while to pay a visit to my little Elli..." A sigh sounded from the older man's throat.

"The bigger of the two had already started to attack Elli, when the small and much too brave Tom managed to get hold of my old soldier's sword, and, sweating with fear, was able to hold it to the second bandit's throat because of his size. The first bandit had let go of my daughter and told Tom that if he lowered the sword, he would leave her alone, and no one would be harmed.... That's exactly what I had heard when I had just entered my property and was already running over. And what was my little Tom doing? He believed him... And just when I wanted to scream, and came running, he took the sword from the throat of the second bandit... And promptly got a dagger in his belly, which the second bandit had slowly taken out of his belt, while the first had distracted him."

"Even with my arrival, and my own dagger, I only made the situation worse, as both bandits panicked and my daughter and granddaughter also suffered stab wounds in the melee... I was able to kill both untrained bandits easily, but I was too late to save the rest of my family in this world... And I had lulled myself too much into security. And everyone else had paid for it."

With these words, Nick looked at Avan, and a single tear ran down the old man's cheek at this memory, and he swallowed once.

Another squeeze of his hand on Avan's shoulder followed. "Therefore, young man... Don't make the same mistake as this old geezer here. Or like my grandson. Live, be wise. Don't be lulled by empty promises or fall. I have a feeling you'll make it. Be especially careful with this other guy today, who talked others into action but stood behind..." And before Avan could say anything in reply, Nick stood up and strolled over to his own sleeping alcove to lie down without another word.

Shit... was the only thought Avan could think as he leaned back on his hands and arms and stared at the ceiling.

He pondered the story, and knew that Nick was right. Even on Earth, he had always trusted everyone in good faith, no matter how many times he had been betrayed or taken advantage of. He was like that, and he always wanted to be like that, because everyone deserved his trust in Avan's eyes.

Others thought according to the principle that a person has to earn the trust of others, as some companies do. But he himself saw it that way, that he basically gave one trust, and one had to lose it then.

Even if Avan always saw himself as a strategist and liked to think, philosophize and plan a lot, he had always given his trust to everyone again and again, without ifs and buts.

But I am sure, if someone would trick me, then I would be the realist and survivor in the first place... There's a difference, Nick... Thank you...